In this Discussion
- beckysioux May 2008
- canoe7grape May 2008
- chancefrench11 December 2009
- cross98bengal February 2008
- DJRose May 2008
- dollarflame6 May 2008
- manx9shrine February 2008
- mayonaise January 2008
- moveadvice72 March 2008
- QueenofthePosers February 2008
- target35ghost February 2008
- Tempe Arizona September 2008
- thephantommilk May 2008
- tune1shade April 2008
- week84crab February 2008
- women60banana September 2008
Comments
Oh, that sounds great. We should have something like that over here.
Do you get state pensions in the US? There's a huge scandal over here at the moment because pensions are so low now that some people are forced to chose between "eat or heat". It's insanity.
Do you get state pensions in the US? There's a huge scandal over here at the moment because pensions are so low now that some people are forced to chose between "eat or heat". It's insanity.
We have something called Social Security. Once you hit 65 (or meet certain requirements if you're younger and unable to work) you get a monthly check from the government. However a lot of people find that it isn't nearly enough to live on and have to find other resources. Right now, there's a lot of concern that Social Security is going to run out and Bush has been using this as a major fear point to garner Republican votes.
"There will be those who say it cannot be done. But we know what we have seen and what we believe -- that when ordinary people come together we can still do extraordinary things." -Obama
I get emails and Facebook messages from Barack about election updates and when I read this it TOTALLY what made me think of "mediocre people to exceptional things all the time."
I would like to add here that the list of superdelegates, who will decide the nominee if there is a tie, includes Bill Clinton as well as the head person running her campaign. In addition, she is asking that the delegates from Florida and Michigan be restored- even tho she was the only name on the whole ballot in Michigan, and she was the only candidate to go back on her word and campaign in Fl, which was against party rules.
She is focusing on states with large delegate counts, like NY and California, which is why even tho she won less states than Obama, she won more delegates. And a large part of her votes were banked early- ppl sending in early ballots b/f they got to know Obama's name, like b/f NH.
Her focus is on ppl of less education in the lower income bracket. I don't know why that is, since she herself was an anti-union Walmart fatcat and the whole reason her healthcare plan failed was that she sold out to her fatcat friends. I'll also post here something I read, even tho it's inflammatory, b/c I think it's significant: in NH, she got elderly ppl to vote by busing them from retirement houses and telling them they were going to a party...well, to be fair, I guess it was her ppl doing that, not she herself, but it immediately interested me when I read today that she was focusing on the elderly in the upcoming elections.
Interesting turn of events today: Clinton had to reach into her pocket for 5 mil. Her campaign is trying now to paint her as underdog. 1) Obama was always and still is the underdog. 2 months ago, nobody thought Obama had a chance at all. She sees that he represents the ppl, and she's getting scared. I say this simply b/c she's trying to give herself the label he always had, that of the underdog, and b/c as soon as she saw his emphasis on "change" was working, she too adopted it, good grief. Her original slogan was "Let the conversation begin." 2) The Campaign Finance Institute reports that more than half her money came from maxed out donations, which means they were HUGE sums from wealthy ppl. Whereas Obama's campaign is run on every person giving a little bit, such as five dollars. It built up to 30 mil, while she has now run out.
americans seem to care about politics more than australians [which is strange, because voting isn't even compulsory... yet another thing i don't understand...]... people actually come to their speeches and stuff... in australia, there's a few but nothing like the american turnout [not saying, people son't care about politics in australia, just not as much...]... i don't really know what this says about our countries... and really, i couldn't be bothered to figure it out... maybe, you can figure it out and get back to me...
i am now finished wasting space in this thread... because really this post didn't help the converstion one bit... but is wasting space a bad thing... yes, probably...
We were discussing this in my politics class, actually. We haven't got compulsory voting in Britain either, so I don't think that's necessarily a factor, but Americans definitely get more involved. I think you're invited more - we don't get to chose the party leaders, for example, so in that sense the US system is more democratic. People care less over here, for some reason.
Republicans would HATE compulsory voting, they'd never win.
More seriously, I will actually attempt a real response to this thread at some point when I have the time to sit and think about it because it's been interesting watching this (and hearing reactions on it) from abroad. EVERYONE is very, very attentive to this right now and I want to give it the proper attention.
However, at the moment all I really wanted to say is that I'll be voting Democratic because I'm liberal and John McCain is a pretty crazy guy, but I have less respect for both Clinton and Obama because neither of them gives a shit about what's going on in post-Katrina land. I'm absolutely sick of candidates catering to the electoral college system and ignoring issues that don't affect voters in New York or California. Parts of New Orleans and LA still look like a fucking war zone and the US gov't isn't doing anything to help. Although Obama decided to give a last minute speech in New Orleans this week so maybe if he says anything useful (though I'm much to jaded to expect anyone to actually follow through on their campaign promises) I'll start leaning more his direction. Sorry. I'm a bit testy when it comes to this issue.
Also, no offense but I've been personally affected by the war in Iraq as well, but I would never go around saying that Hillary Clinton is responsible for millions of deaths. A war in Iraq could have gone much better if the Bush administration had not ignored perfectly sound and good advice from certain sources, and Congress had nothing to do with the administration's missteps. Not that I supported it at the time or any time since, but I think it's going WAY too far to say that Hillary Clinton has the "blood of millions" on her hands.
Oh and compulsory voting is enforced with punishments from fines all the way up to jail time if a person doesn't show up at their designated polling place on election day (there are mechanisms in place for disabled/old/immobile/etc. people). Though some countries don't really enforce it.
Compare her to Senator Gavel, one of the noblest people in our nation. He isn't afraid to call a war a war, and he wasn't afraid to call Hillary up for recently voting for a figleaf for war in Iran, the Kyle-Lieberman bill. In fact, when he called her up on it, she laughed. The truth is, if she cared about diplomacy or peace, if she had learned from the mistake in Iraq, she would have never voted here for action in Iran. And, when Senator Gavel called her up on it, she gave her signature laugh of dismissal. Moreover, she still, to this day, has not apologized for her vote on the war in Iraq, or called it a mistake. When she was asked last week about why, she gave a long-winded, vague response.
Compare that to Edwards. He is very open about how his vote was a mistake and how he regrets it. I think that not only makes him a "bigger person," it also makes him a moral person and a person who is not afraid to admit and learn from mistakes.
my mom liked him.
About Hillary and the war- I don't think it's completely her fault. I mean, she obviously voted for it, and that obviously helped pass it, but I get the feeling it would have passed anyways- because of the post-9/11, patriotic, jingoistic atmosphere which the government encouraged, and a bunch of other factors. And anyways, even the best presidents have made mistakes.
The bigger mistake, imo, is being reluctant to apologize for her first mistake. Because even if she isn't completely to blame, she still played a role- the whole congress did. And it just seems like she's too proud to admit a mistake, and I don't think that's good in a president- they're human, they make mistakes, but they need to be able to admit it, take the blame, fix things, and then move on.
And I don't really know about the Iran thing. The fact that she voted for it really confuses me.
anyways, Sarah, I completely agree about the post-Katrina issue.
And I'm sorry that you have to deal with politicians who cater to important states as opposed to the real issues of the country.
Yes, we can! YES, WE CAN!
The time has come for a government by the people, for the people!
The time has come for a leader beside us and not in front of us!
The time has come for our voices, the voices of the people to be heard!
The past is no longer- it is time for the future!
On another subject, this makes me extremely happy:
They are yelling her name, b/c it's about her. But we are shouting "yes we can" b/c it's about us, the ppl. That was at today's dinner in Va, where both candidates spoke.
Ignore all of the following, b/c I'm not discussing, I'm just musing over what happened today- because we the people are taking back our nation!
Well, after crying twice- both times the night before a primary- Hillary added another theatric gesture today. She called for an msnbc news anchor to be fired. He had said that it was odd how Hillary was "pimping" Chelsea to win votes for her. Hillary responded by saying that his apology and temporary suspension were not enough and that she was a mom before she was a politician.
First off, maybe "pimping" has a bad connotation and yes, he should not have used that term, but he wasn't talking about Chelsea- he was talking about Hillary's exploitation of her. Chelsea made phone calls to the women on The View and other celebrities on behalf of her mother, is what he was referring to. Later today Clinton changed her mind and decided she didn't want him fired after all. Instead, she's saying all of msnbc is sexist. Oh, really? And how many feminists are you trying to manipulate with that statement? Honestly, I cannot picture her talking to Putin- crying and theatrics is not going to work on the world stage. Gimmicks, lies, distortions, pushing polls- insider politics isn't going to cut it.
In other news, Ann Coulter said Hillary is Republican enough that if it goes McCain vs Hillary, Ann will definitely vote for, support and endorse Hillary.
Oh, yeah- and today she changed her head of staff, and a few days ago loaned herself 5 mil- all to rip the headlines away from Obama's wins. If she can't manage her own campaign money and manage a good staff, how can she run a nation?
Maine, Delaware, Nebraska, Washington State, Connecticut, Missouri, Illinois, Utah, Idaho- these are not states with large minorities anyhow.
I am so happy right now. I'm near to tears of joy. He's won a huge percent of the white males, which we hoped would probly happen, the youth vote, which we hoped would probly happen, and the educated white professional vote, which we hoped would happen but...he's also made enormous progress by winning the support of "blue-collar workers" (I don't like that term)...AND the elderly vote....AND middle aged white women!
Ppl felt that "blue-collar workers," the elderly and middle aged white women would only vote for Hillary- but they didn't care what ppl said. They voted for change. The dif b/c Obama and Hillary in the middle aged white femal vote was three points and he surpassed her in the other two groups.
Damian once said something that made me cry, b/c I didn't think anybody anymore cared about the truth. When I heard Obama speak, I felt the same way- I didn't expect him to be that way. I thought maybe I should calm down, maybe he isn't as good and true as I hoped. But he was more, he was more. And anybody who says he lacks substance has never heard him speak, or has her ears blocked.
Senator Obama is honest, decent, caring, clean, peaceful, intelligent, strong, rational. I know that he will lead us to a greater vision than we ever dared to imagine.
I know it's too early to be happy, but I'm so glad- I'm just so glad.
I don't even care that Clinton is taking the press's attention (another head of her staff gone tonight, this time, her deputy manager...She's really vying for attention...my campaign manager is gone...my money is gone...msnbc is sexist to me...my deputy manager is gone) or that she keeps trying to find excuses to undermine Obama's wins. ok, I guess I do care, but this made me laugh. It was spoken by one of her ardent supporters, in total innocence:
"Poor Hillary," Jensen says. All that personal money -- $5 million! -- she had to put into her campaign. "She should just go on television and cry again. It was so effective."
from here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...21202456_3.html
1) I'm so proud of him- just listen to this:
Mr. Obama criticized the use of military tribunals to try six men accused of plotting the Sept. 11 terror attacks, The San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Obama said the men should be tried either in a U.S. criminal court or by military court-martial, either of which would “demonstrate our commitment to the rule of law.” Both those systems are more protective of defendants’ rights than military tribunals, which allow evidence obtained through coercion and hearsay.
Sen. John McCain of Arizona, front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, expressed no such reservations.
“I’m sorry that it has taken so long,” McCain told Reuters. “Let’s begin this process.”
from the Washington Post
They used waterboarding you know- which is horrific. I heard on NPR the other day one of the prisoners was just a 15 year old boy when the US imprisoned him. It's all just shameful. McCain has no shame.
But Obama- he does us proud.
2) Bill Clinton's former campaign manager has endorsed Obama. Yippy skippy!
3) Obama is unveiling new plans for the economy. He always had plans, which some ppl didn't read, but now he's adding something more:
By JERRY ESTILL, Associated Press WriterWed Feb 13, 9:51 AM ET
Sen. Barack Obama blamed Washington and his Democrat and Republican rivals for the nation's economic woes on Wednesday, one day after racking up big primary victories. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton courted Texas voters, counting on the state to help her faltering candidacy rebound.
"We are not standing on the brink of recession due to forces beyond our control," Obama said in excerpts of a speech at a General Motors plant in Janesville, Wis. "The fallout from the housing crisis that's cost jobs and wiped out savings was not an inevitable part of the business cycle. It was a failure of leadership and imagination in Washington."
On Tuesday, General Motors Corp., reported the largest annual loss ever for a U.S. automotive company — $38.7 billion in 2007. The loss largely was due to a third-quarter charge related to unused tax credits. Separately, GM was offering a new round of buyouts to 74,000 U.S. hourly workers.
Obama offered a litany of problems associated with Washington, where he has been a senator since January 2005.
"It's a Washington where politicians like John McCain and Hillary Clinton voted for a war in Iraq that should've never been authorized and never been waged — a war that is costing us thousands of precious lives and billions of dollars a week" that could be used on infrastructure, job training and health care.
Obama surged to the fore in the delegate race for the party prize with resounding primary victories Tuesday in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. On the GOP side, McCain took another step in shoring up his credentials as the runaway Republican front-runner despite lukewarm support from the party's conservative base.
Clinton, considered the overwhelming Democratic favorite just a few weeks ago, was left to turn her attention to Texas and Ohio in an attempt to pump new life into her suddenly stumbling campaign.
"There's a great saying in Texas, all hat and no cattle," she told a boisterous crowd of about 12,000 at a college basketball arena in El Paso Tuesday evening as the shape of the latest Obama ballot victories were unfolding. "Well, after seven years of George Bush, we need a lot less hat and lot more cattle."
Before flying into Texas, she told a Cincinnati television station that "Ohio is really going to count in determining who our Democratic nominee is going to be." She also declared herself the "underdog candidate" in the Wisconsin primary next Tuesday, the same day Obama's birthplace Hawaii holds its primary.
In was at the University of Wisconsin where Obama characterized his surging campaign to a crowd of 17,000. "This is what change looks like when it happens from the bottom up," he said. "This is the new American majority."
Looking ahead to November, he said that although he honors McCain's experience as a war hero, he is linked to failed policies put in place by President Bush.
"George Bush won't be on the ballot this November, but the Bush-Cheney war and the Bush-Cheney tax cuts for the wealthy will be on the ballot," he said.
McCain told supporters in Virginia it is clear where either Obama or Clinton would take the country "and we dare not let them. They will paint a picture of the world in which America's mistakes are a greater threat to our security than the malevolent intentions of an enemy that despises us and our ideals."
The Associated Press count of delegates showed Obama with 1,223. Clinton had 1,198, falling behind for the first time since the campaign began. Neither was close to the 2,025 needed to win the nomination.
His victories Tuesday were by overwhelming margins — 75 percent of the vote in the nation's capital , nearly two-thirds in Virginia and approximately 60 percent in Maryland.
Obama moved past Clinton in the delegate chase on the basis of the Tuesday's primaries and newly released results from last Saturday's Washington caucuses. Additional delegates still to be allocated from his new victories were certain to add to his lead.
McCain's victory in Virginia was a relatively close one, the result of an outpouring of religious conservatives who backed Mike Huckabee.
The AP count showed McCain with 821 delegates. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who dropped out of the race last week, had 288. Huckabee had 241 and Texas Rep. Ron Paul had 14.
By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer 40 minutes ago
Democrat Barack Obama said Wednesday that as president he would spend $210 billion to create jobs in construction and environmental industries, as he tried to win over economically struggling voters.
Obama's investment would be over 10 years as part of two programs. The larger is $150 billion to create 5 million so-called "green collar" jobs to develop more environmentally friendly energy sources.
Sixty billion would go to a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank to rebuild highways, bridges, airports and other public projects. Obama estimated that could generate nearly 2 million jobs, many of them in the construction industry that's been hit by the housing crisis.
"This agenda is paid for," Obama said as the Republican National Committee promoted an "Obama Spend-O-Meter" online to track his proposals and portray him as a tax-and-spend liberal. Obama explained that the money for his spending proposals will come from ending the Iraq war, cutting tax breaks for corporations, taxing carbon pollution and raising taxes on high income earners.
Obama, who has faced criticism that he doesn't have enough policy specifics, asked autoworkers at the General Motors plant in Janesville, Wis., to "bear with me" as his began a policy speech that he said would be unlike his typical rousing addresses to rallies. He read from a TelePrompTer in a cavernous training room, flanked by sparkling new vehicles and a large American flag.
"Today I want to take it down a notch," Obama said. "This is going to be a speech that's a little more detailed. It's going to be a little bit longer, not as many applause lines."
Obama pointedly did not include one of his biggest applause lines, that he would require vehicle manufacturers to raise fuel economy standards. Obama often points out that he delivered that message straight to the automakers during a speech last year in Detroit.
But he didn't mention it on the plant visit that came a day after GM reported the largest annual loss ever for an American automaker — $38.7 billion in 2007.
"I know that General Motors received some bad news yesterday," Obama said. "I also know how much progress you've made, how many hybrids and fuel-efficient vehicles you're churning out. And I believe that if our government is there to support you, and give you the assistance you need to retool and make this transition, that this plant will be here for another hundred years."
Obama heads into Tuesday's Wisconsin primary as the favorite in the state and the front-runner for the nomination. His victories this week in eight contests have put him ahead of rival Hillary Rodham Clinton in the delegate chase.
But Obama did not pursue the front-runner strategy of ignoring rivals. He repeatedly criticized Clinton in an effort to beat back the challenge she still poses to him.
He tied her to likely Republican presidential nominee John McCain for their shared vote to authorize the war in Iraq. He lumped her with President Bush for offering an economic recovery plan that didn't include immediate relief, without mentioning that both the president and Clinton quickly adopted tax rebates.
Obama's appearance in Janesville was part of a strategy to reach out to voters who might be struggling in the economy and who have supported Clinton in most contests so far. Combining exit polls from 19 states that had competitive Democratic primaries before Tuesday, Clinton had a 49 percent to 46 percent edge over Obama with voters who named the economy as the No. 1 problem.
But Obama seemed to be turning that around in his most recent victories Tuesday. In Virginia and Maryland, Obama dominated among the one-half of Democratic voters who named the economy as their chief concern. In both states, about six in 10 Democrats who cited the economy voted for Obama.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs...5066/1001/RSS01
McCain is pretty adament about this being a veteran. I don't like though how he uses the fact that he's a veteran as a selling point in his campaign. It's a good thing to be a vet, but there's more to being president as well. Gah, he's one of AZ's senators, so he's mentioned a lot on the news around here.
Well, they didn't say McCain was either for or against waterboarding in and of itself.
It's that he doesn't care about trying the prisoners in a military tribunal, which would mean that confessions forced out during waterboarding would count, whereas in a US criminal court or court martial, those confessions would not be allowed as valid evidence. Quite frankly, if someone were drowning me, I'd confess to anything they asked me to as well. And so that's just not an ethical way to conduct ourselves.
McCain supports the war in Iraq and makes no secret of his love for war in general- in the name of national security. But, to be fair, maybe he doesn't believe the things he's saying and is just pandering to the war-happy, "security"-obsessed Republican base.
I guess I'll never forgive him for singing his "bomb Iran" song, as if war were a little ditty:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9L3kEQXjrU
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/McCain_unplu..._bomb_0419.html
It was so offensive, youtube pulled a version off.
To be honest, his support for war and his emphasis on being such a wise, loving veteran is hypocritical to me.
The lyrics to his song:
But a group called Vince Vance and the Valiants actually released the "Bomb Iran" song during the 1979 hostage crisis, and the lyrics are clearly anti-Muslim, at least by today's standards. (It's available on Amazon.com.)
An excerpt from the full lyrics:
Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran.
Went to a mosque, gonna throw some rocks.
Tell the Ayatollah..."Gonna put you in a box!"
Bomb Iran. Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran.
Our country's got a feelin'
Really hit the ceilin', bomb Iran.
Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran.
Ol' Uncle Sam's gettin' pretty hot.
Time to turn Iran into a parking lot. Bomb Iran...
It's not clear whether McCain was thinking of the Vince Vance lyrics, or merely joking about dropping high explosives on Iranian civilians, but it was enough for the Arab American Institute to get worried. In a statement, the group called on McCain to disavow his remarks.
On Thursday, McCain had defended "Bomb Iran," saying: "Lighten up and get a life.' Asked if his choice of songs was insensitive, McCain said, according to the Associated Press: "Insensitive to what? The Iranians?"
from http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9711370-7.html
Ha, Tempe, you know my friend Ed is Rush Limbaugh's producer? ;-)
Gah, wow! You've got so many connections! How do you do it?
Ed and I worked together at the radio station on Long Island. I also know Eddie Erickson from the Mike and the Mad Dog show. Both those Eds were at our wedding, but I haven't talked to Mad Dog's Ed in like 3 years.